Iran and Hezbollah: An Analysis of the Threat by Clare Lopez

Retired CIA officer Clare Lopez has published an excellent, detailed analysis of the threat from Hezbollah as an arm of Iran’s arsenal.

Here is a brief excerpt and link to her report, entitled Hizballah: Iran’s Other Looming Threat to the West

The single most important fact to understand about Hizballah is that its chain of command goes directly to the Iranian Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, by way of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Qods Force. That Iranian connection, as well as Hizballah’s close and long-standing relationship with al-Qa’eda, the global reach of this Shi’ite jihadist group, and above all, its extensive presence and criminal activities in the Western Hemisphere, including inside the United States, all merit a closer look. With U.S. national security directly in Hizballah’s cross-hairs, it’s more important than ever to understand what this group is, who leads it, what has motivated them along a bloody 30-year trail of terrorism, and what damage this group is capable of inflicting on American interests.

For even as Hizballah is an Islamic terror organization, an Iranian proxy for power projection, a Transnational Criminal Organization, and a Lebanese military, political, and social domestic entity, it is above all a direct threat to U.S. national security. After all, and despite a complete media blackout on the topic that prevails to this day, on Iranian orders and working together with al-Qa’eda, Hizballah participated in the worst strike ever against the American homeland: the attacks of 9/11. There is no threshold, ideological or otherwise, that Hizballah has not already crossed or would not cross again, given a direct order from Tehran. 

Word out of London in late 2013 is that the U.S. is engaged in secret, indirect negotiations with Hizballah, with British diplomats acting as intermediaries. Those talks followed closely on the U.S. capitulation to Iran over its nuclear weapons program during November 2013 discussions in Geneva and reflect a White House policy of seeking to normalize relations with the regime designated by the Department of State as the number one global state sponsor of terror. Hizballah remains a designated terror organization on the Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) list. And while the story about the U.S.-Hizballah talks in London made the Israeli and U.K. media, not one major U.S. media outlet thought it significant to report that the U.S. administration is reaching out to mend relations with what many describe as the most dangerous Islamic terror organization in the world.



CNS News: More Evidence Emerges of Worldwide Iranian-Backed Terror Plotting

CNS News has published a very important analysis that shows that Iran’s terrorist plots–run through the Pasdaran and Hezbollah–aimed at Israel and the United States, have been uncovered in locales as diverse as Thailand, India, Kenya, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Cyprus, and Bulgaria.

Iran Continues to Edge Closer to Nuclear Weapons

There have been two recent developments that should greatly raise the level of concern over the Islamic Republic of Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons.

First was the recent North Korean nuclear test. There is no doubt that Iran and North Korea have cooperated for decades on a variety of matters. They have evidently shared ballistic missile technology and there have even been reports from the US Congressional Research Service of North Korean advisers training Hezbollah terrorists in the Bekaa Valley, something that would almost certainly be set up by the Iranian Pasdaran.

In the past, when the North Koreans have conducted weapons tests of various types, there have been repeated reports of Iranian observers on the scene.

The latest North Korean nuclear test indicates that North Korea has two separate and relatively successful nuclear weapons tracks: one plutonium and the other enriched uranium.

Given the close relationship between North Korea and Iran in the past, and given that Iran is awash in petrodollars (despite sanctions) and North Korea is always wanting for cash, one cannot help but be concerned that at the very least nuclear technology is changing hands. At the worst, North Korea might well simply sell Iran a nuclear bomb.

Meanwhile, Iran’s own nuclear research efforts continue apace. Keep in mind that, even if North Korea hands over a bomb to Iran, Iran would almost certainly want to develop and maintain a nuclear infrastructure to support a nuclear arsenal.

The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) issued a report last week that Iran has installed and begun using advanced centrifuges which have enabled them to speed up their uranium enrichment. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that Iran has enriched uranium to a level that is 70% of what is needed for a weapon and, given Iran’s current capabilities, the Ayatollahs could have enough enriched uranium to make a bomb “by the summer.” That’s just 4 months off.

Meanwhile, it seems as if the US Obama administration is preparing for a nuclear Iran. The evidence for this comes from the notoriously shameless shills for Obama at the inappropriately named Center for a New American Security. The eggheads over there are now dismissing the notion that a nuclear-armed Iran will touch off a Middle East nuclear arms race. They base this on the fact that the Saudis do not possess the know-how to run a nuclear weapons program.

What they completely overlook, or conveniently fail to acknowledge, is the fact that Saudi Arabia has scarcely EVER possessed the know-how to do ANYTHING complex. For decades the Saudis have purchased everything they need and the technical support to go along with it.

Despite the CANS denials, there is an obvious source for the Saudis to turn to for nuclear weapons: Pakistan. Pakistan reportedly has between 90 and 110 nuclear warheads. They have the technical expertise for a nuclear program. But most importantly, it has been widely reported that the Pakistani nuclear program was financed by Saudi Arabia in the first place.

So, the Center for a New American Security’s latest comic book disguised as scholarly output is stillborn.

Of course, the report downplays the possibility of a Middle East nuclear arms race, and it does not delve into any of the other potentially terrible outcomes from a nuclear-armed Iran.


Qassem Suleimani: The world’s most dangerous terrorist

Remember the name Qassem Suleimani. He is the Iranian who heads the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, a barbarous and bloody wing of the Ayatollahs’ imperialistic aggression.

Report: Iranian Unit 400 terror squad targeting Jewish, Israeli and Western targets in Turkey

Sky News is the UK is reporting that a special unit of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps al Quds Brigade has been deployed to Turkey with the intent of targeting Jewish, Israeli and Western targets for terrorist attacks.

The name of the special unit is “Unit 400.”

It would certainly not be the first time that Jihadists have used Turkey as a battleground for terrorist attacks on Western targets. And because Turkey has a large Islamist community, is essentially ruled by an Islamist party and has become decidedly anti-Israel since the Islamists came to power, a terrorist force like Unit 400 can find clandestine support and blend in to the landscape almost effortlessly.

Note also that Unit 400 has been named as plotting terrorist attacks in European nations and also in the USA. The US plot involved cooperation with Mexican drug cartels.

According to the report, the Iranian regime wants to use the Unit 400 attacks to send a signal to the West that Iran is highly capable of waging irregular warfare in the West should Iran be attacked over its nuclear program.

Unit 400 is a serious threat. These are highly-trained, professional operatives, not young Jihadis who have been duped into going Islamikaze by an Imam in some hell-hole mosque in a bad neighborhood.


Iran’s Security Ministry to Safeguard Shariah Rule During Sham Parliamentary Elections

Many people around the world are under the mistaken impression that elections in Iran are free and legitimate. Nothing could be further from the truth. Candidates have to be approved by the supreme leader and his council ahead of time, thus ensuring that true opposition is stifled.

Moreover, the ruling ayatollahs send their thug Pasdaran into the streets to ensure that no one disrupts the rubber stamp elections that perpetuate the illusion of pluralistic governance.

A prime example comes to us today. In March, Iran will hold elections for its parliament, known as the Majlis. Readers should understand that the Majlis has no real power. The real power, of course, resides with the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is the Supreme Leader. Nevertheless, the Iranians like to make a big show of their parliamentary elections.

Just to make sure that everything goes smoothly and that here aren’t any “deviations” from the “Islamic system,” Iran’s Security Ministry will be out in force during the elections to make sure that opposition movements cannot “occupy the presidential and parliamentary chairs” and thus try to “win people over.”


IRGC General Claims Iran is Digging Mass Graves for U.S. Troops

Iran has dug mass graves in which to bury U.S. troops in case of any American attack on the country, a commander of the elite Revolutionary Guard has said.

The deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guard (known at the Pasdaran), Gen. Hossein Kan’ani Moghadam, said graves for any attacking U.S. troops have been dug in Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan province, where Iran buried Iraqi soldiers killed during the ruinous 1980-88 war between the Islamic republic and Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s regime.

“The mass graves that used to be for burying Saddam’s soldiers have now been prepared again for U.S. soldiers, and this is the reason for digging this big number of graves,” Moghadam said, according to the semiofficial Fars news agency.